Trading Places
by sakuuya
Summary: While in a fit of depression, Pegasus is given an interesting choice. How will Cyndia deal with it?finished
1. Chapter 1

**Trading Places**

Ack, sorry I haven't updated for like two months.I was suffering from a bad case of writer's , this is just your basic roseshipping (Pegasus/Cyndia) fic, and it's my first try at romance, so be gentle. It starts a while after Duelist Kingdom. Japanese character names are used.

**Disclaimer:** I own neither Yu-gi-oh nor disclaimers. (Thank goodness. If I owned disclaimers, I'm sure I would have been murdered long before now..)

* * *

"Cyndia. I'm so sorry. I-I never wanted this to happen. All I wanted was too see you again! You'll forgive me, won't you?" It was a strange scene: A tall man in a suit knelt in front of a picture, apparently talking to it. A man by the name of Pegasus J. Crawford. Despite his gray hair, he was only in his mid-twenties. He might have had a long life ahead of him, but at the moment he didn't much care.

"Who am I kidding? I don't deserve your forgiveness, Cee. Yours or anyone else's. Hell, I can't even forgive myself. I've caused so much pain.. and all for some insane plan! It-it would be better if I weren't even here." He smiled.

"Even though there's no way for us to meet again in this world, maybe-maybe we'll meet again in the next." Pegasus walked, a little shakily, as he had just gotten out of the hospital, over to his desk. Opening a side drawer, he extracted a nine mm pistol. Trembling slightly, he parted his hair, holding the pistol to the empty socket that had once held the Sennen Eye.

"I don't deserve to keep living," he whispered bitterly. I've caused too much pain to be allowed to go on," His voice trembled. "Oh, Cyndia! I-I should have died instead of you! The world would have been better.. all the people I've you would have lived instead of me, you would have never descended to this level. I wish I could have given my life for yours! You know I would do it in an instant, Cee. Yours would have been so fulfilling.. and look what I did with mine! I'll see you soon at any rate." Pegasus pressed the pistol harder against the empty socket. He closed his remaining eye in fearful and eager anticipation.

"That can be arranged, you know." Pegasus dropped his gun in surprise. He spun wildly, searching for the source of the voice. He was alone in the room.

"Who are you?" he shouted frantically, "And what do you mean, 'that can be arranged?'"

"Who I am is of little importance. As for what I mean, I was referring to your wish to trade your life for your wife's."

"Really? It-it's possible? How?"

"Easily. All I need is your consent. Think carefully, Pegasus. Once made, this decision cannot be reversed." Pegasus took a deep breath. This was it! His chance to undo all the evil he had wrought!

"Yes. I-I'll do it."

"Very well."

o()o

"Unh." Pegasus' eyes fluttered open. Where WAS he? The room was bare- empty. He was sure none of the rooms in his castle were like this. And why did he feel so weak?

The realization hit him like a tidal wave. His wish. He looked around the bleak room in which he had found himself. It must be a hospital room, some logical part of him reasoned. Oh, why in hell had he done something so abysmally stupid?

Then his door opened, and all his misgivings vanished. Even though he knew he'd die soon, everything he had lost was worth it for this one moment.

Cyndia.

He thought he'd missed her, but they say you never know how much you miss someone until you see them again. And seeing her like this-alive, well, and tangibly real- in Pegasus' opinion, that was worth a thousand deaths. For a while now, Cyndia had been a painful memory, a fading portrait. But was the happiest man alive.

"Peega? How are you feeling?" God, how he'd missed her voice!

"Fine, Cee. Much better now that you're here." Cynthia smiled, but there was still worry in her eyes.

"Well, you do look a little today than you have for a while. I guess all that chemotherapy is finally working."

"Maybe. But when I get better, I never want to hear the word 'chemo' as long as I live." Pegasus knew he wasn't going to live through this, but there was no point in worrying Cyndia.

"Mr. Crawford? I'm sorry, but visiting hours are over." A male nurse who couldn't be much older than Pegasus himself poked his head into the room. "I'm afraid this young lady."

"My wife."

"Your wife, then. Anyways, she's got to leave now." Pegasus sighed.

"I suppose he's right. See you tomorrow?"

"Of course." Cyndia bent down and kissed her husband lightly on the cheek.

o()o

Pegasus' days blurred together. Time moved at a gruelingly slow pace, except, when Cyndia was with him. Her visits were the only bright spots on his eternally bleak horizon.

o()o

Cyndia rushed to the hospital. Her poor Peega-chan wasn't doing so well, and she wanted to spend as much time with him as she could, in case 't make it. She didn't allow herself to think the word "die." Pegasus would get better-he had to! She didn't know if she could live without him.

"Mrs. Crawford?" Cyndia skidded to a halt. She had been half-running past the hospital's front desk, so she figured that some nurse was going to tell her to slow down. As for how this nurse knew her name, Cyndia had been such a frequent hospital visitor that she would be surprised if any of this wing's staff DIDN'T know who she was.

"Yes?" Cyndia quickly composed herself, turning to face the grave-looking nurse.

"Mrs. Crawford, I have some bad news." Cyndia drew a sharp breath. "I'm afraid your husband's chemotherapy hasn't been working. So we-well, we're focusing our medical attention on making him comfortable in the little time he has left. I'm so sorry."

If the nurse said anything else, Cyndia didn't catch it. Abandoning all pretenses, she flat-out ran to Pegasus' room.

"So-you heard too?" Pegasus only needed to take one look at his wife's face to tell THAT much.

"Y-yes." The tears Cyndia had been holding back could be contained no longer. "Oh, Peega! I'm so sorry! If I could die for you, I'd do it in an instant!"

"Shh, don't talk like that, Cee. It's all right. You should be happy that you're alive and well. There's nothing more you could have done for me, Cinny. If anything, it's your love that's kept me alive this long."

"No! It's not all right! I-I wish." She broke off, sobbing too hard to continue.

"Don't cry, Cee. You're strong. You'll be all right. And as for me- well, I'll be waiting for you." Cyndia's hand crept into Pegasus', which grasped it tightly. "I love you, Cyndia."

"And I you, my Peega." Pegasus' hand unclasped, a slight smile on his lips. His last thought was how worthwhile his decision had been.


	2. Chapter 2

**Trading Places**

Before I get on to the fiction, I'd like to take a minute to thank all my wonderful reviewers.

Zatken: it's always nice to meet a fellow Pegasus fan. And you're right about Pegasus. (Even though I do love him..)

Sam: Um.. yeah, her name IS Cecilia in the English version, but I use Japanese character names. But I'm glad you like it.

Shannon: Well, as this is the second chapter, I believe I've answered your question. (Actually, if it hadn't been for people like you who wanted me to continue, it WOULD have been one-shot.)

Windswift: Once again, glad you liked it. And writing romance is . (The first draft of this chapter accidentally came out as a Yugi/Cyndia pairing. That's the last time I use Cyndia for my muse.)

Peggi: Go back and read Shannon's, cuz I'm too lazy to type that out again. And thankies right back for YOUR reviews.

Millennium Elf: Yeah, angst is fun, isn't it?

Sylvia/Lena (Even though you're not gonna read this version..): Well, chivalry has always been a trait I've associated with Pegasus. As for who that "guy" is, well, all shall be revealed. And yeah, she probably would have. And you're ever so welcome. ^^

Kabuki (Ditto on the even-though-you're not reading this version-thing): Nope, I'm not surprised at all. Actually, you have no idea what a huge fight my brother/beta-reader and I had about that stupid gun.. Getting back to something remotely resembling the topic, yeah, he would. I hope I have a boyfriend like him do I keep getting so off topic? Anyway, I can see him doing all that I'm glad he died happy, too, although Cyndia may not be granted that same luxury.

A huge thankies to everyone who reviewed! Oh, and the disclaimer still stands. Now, on to the fiction!

* * *

Cyndia Crawford stole quietly through the silent cemetery, a bouquet of roses held carefully so she wouldn't drop it. Though it was almost pitch- dark, as clouds hid the sliver that was the moon, and she carried no flashlight, she didn't stumble. How many times had she come this way? Before the mathematical part of her brain had quite figured it out, she stopped, almost automatically, in front of a headstone.

Cyndia knelt in front of the marker, laying her roses carefully beside her. Her now-free hands traced the words on the headstone, words she knew by heart:

**In memory of Pegasus J. Crawford,  
Loving Husband and aspiring artist  
Died --  
**

Today. Seven years ago today. Cyndia pressed her hand harder against the cold headstone to stop her fingers from trembling. Never-she'd come here so often through out the past seven years, ever since her husband had died, and often at night, as she had this time, but never had she felt so alone. Always before, when she had come to her husband's grave, Cyndia had . Not a ghost exactly. more like a presence. She'd felt her Peega-chan as if he were standing right next to her. But . She was truly alone.

As if with a will of it's own, her hand pushed itself away from the tombstone that had kept it's shudders in check and reached, with terrible steadiness, into the bouquet Cyndia had brought with her, ignoring the roses' thorns, and extracted a long, slim dagger.

"How-how did that get in there?" Although she was trembling violently, Cyndia held the dagger firmly by the hilt. She laid the blade gently against her chest.

"It would be so perfect.I'd die here, next to you. No one ever comes to this part of the cemetery, so I'd definitely be dead by the time anyone found seems so perfectly laid out, it's almost as if this was fated to happen.."

Cyndia twirled the dagger slowly in hands that shook no longer. The idea of suicide terrified her, but there was something fascinating about the way the dagger's blade caught even the faintest light from the almost-new moon. It didn't seem to be a weapon. Quite the contrary, as she ran a finger down one side of the blade, it felt warm and soft as a lover's touch. Cyndia didn't notice a tiny trickle of blood fall from her finger. She was mesmerized by the knife she held, as if it were the long-sought answer to the Sphinx's riddle.

o()o

Cyndia Pegasus was found dead the next morning, neatly laid out next to her husband's grave. She had apparently died from blood loss from a stab wound in her chest. The blade that delivered that blow was never found.

o()o

"Now do you regret your choice?"

"Yes, , God. Cyndia! I'm so sorry! How could I have driven you to that?" Pegasus J. Crawford was once again in standing in his tower room, pistol in hand.

"You did nothing wrong," the voice said, tainted with sadness, "and she did nothing you were not about to do."

"Yes, I suppose, but. I chose that! Idiot that I am, I thought I could cheat fate, trading my life for hers like that. But she died anyway, didn't she? Further proof that my life is worth nothing."

"Your life is worth more than you know, Pegasus. Why else would you have been given such a choice?"

God, he was going crazy. Talking to a disembodied voice! So he'd finally snapped. It wasn't that hard to believe, actually. He'd been teetering on the edge of the pit known as insanity for more than seven years. But, he reasoned, why not humor himself?

"Yes, I was given a choice. But not the one you speak of." Pegasus marveled that he could be so calm. He really must be crazy. He swallowed hard, then continued, "The choice I was given was between a painful death for my love or myself. Well, I choose myself."

Holding the pistol to his head, Pegasus pulled the trigger.

"Goodbye, Pegasus," the voice said, suddenly becoming much more feminine. It's source materialized for a moment, her arms cradling the fallen Pegasus. A lock of her blond hair fell across his face, and he opened his eye.

"Goodbye, Cyndia," he whispered hoarsely, before going limp in her arms.


End file.
